In this Sept. 6, 2013, file photo, PSA counselor Shira Scherb leaves a note in the mailbox for the parents of a truant San Fernando Valley student on Student Recovery Day, where teams of attendance counselors and administrators knock on the doors of chronically truant kids. They try to get to the root of whatever problem is keeping them out of the classroom and resolve it so the kids can get back on track. A report released on Sept. 30, 2013, says that truancy is a growing problem at the elementary-school level. (File photo by Andy Holzman/Los Angeles Daily News)

Truancy among California’s elementary school students has reached a “crisis” level, jeopardizing their education, draining district coffers and costing the state billions through higher crime and poverty, according to a study released Monday by the state Attorney General’s Office.

The report, released at an anti-truancy symposium in Los Angeles, said one of every five elementary students was reported to be truant in 2011-12. Nearly 2,000 elementary schools — about 30 percent — reported truancy of 20 percent to 40 percent, and nearly 10 percent had even higher rates.

Reasons for the unexcused absences include family issues, neighborhood safety concerns and bullying.

“The findings are stark. We are failing our children,” the report concluded, as it called for a sweeping battle against absenteeism that brings together parents, educators, lawmakers, law enforcement and community groups.

Findings showed about 1 million elementary school children were truant in the 2012-2013 year, based on a sampling of school districts, and nearly 83,000 missed 10 percent or more of the school year due to unexcused absences.

“To put this into perspective,” the report said, “we are discussing a 6-year-old in the first grade who has stacked up as many as 20, 30, even 80 absences in a 180-day school year.”

More than 250,000 students missed more than 18 school days in the year, the study estimated.

School districts, which receive government funding based on student attendance, lose $1.4 billion per year to truancy, the report estimated.

With elementary school enrollment topping 800,000 — the largest in the state — Los Angeles County reported a truancy rate of 20.5 percent, or nearly 166,500 students; Ventura County, 16.7 percent of its 75,000 students; and San Bernardino County, 28.3 percent of its 237,000 students.

The report said the chronic unexcused absences among the youngest students resulted in the significant loss of funding to local school districts.

Los Angeles County, for instance, lost nearly $340 million because of recurring absenteeism among its K-12 students; Ventura County, $32.9 million; and San Bernardino County, $106.3 million.

Patricia Jimenez, a Pupil Services administrator for L.A. Unified, said attendance is especially spotty in kindergarten and first grade, when moms and dads may view school as day care rather than an academic benchmark.

“Parents may not understand how vital kindergarten is nowadays,” she said. “They’re thinking that it’s just learning basic colors or numbers, but it’s much more advanced. We’re preparing children to know how to read and for other subjects in the curriculum.”

LAUSD is in the second year of an attendance-improvement program targeting the parents of both those early elementary students and ninth-graders. Through intervention and incentives, the administrators hope to keep them in school and on track.

Studies indicate that chronically truant students are more likely to drop out of high school, end up jobless and turn to crime.

“Factoring in the costs of incarceration and lost economic productivity and tax revenues, dropouts cost Cali­fornia an estimated $46.4 billion per year,” the report said.

“To be smart on crime, combating truancy must be a core goal of state public safety policy.”

That means dealing with issues that lead to absenteeism in early grades, including family struggles that range, the report noted, “from the relatively mundane to the truly harrowing.

“In our interviews with district officials, poverty, homelessness, incarceration, evictions and job loss were repeated over and over as obstacles to school attendance.”

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.